PRESIDIUM OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF BELARUS FOCUSED ON THE DRAFT GOVERNMENTAL PROGRAMME ON PROMOTING EMPLOYMENT FOR 2008
Presidium of the Council of Ministers of Belarus focused on the draft governmental programme on promoting employment for 2008
In 2008 some 165 thousand new jobs should be created in Belarus. The number of the employed in the economic sector should reach 4535 thousand. Such task was set by Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky on January 22 at a session of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of Belarus, which focused on the draft governmental programme on promoting employment for 2008. First, the draft provided for creating 120,5 thousand new jobs.
According to Sergei Sidorsky, the employment programme for 2008 should be closely connected with the programme on innovation development and development of small and medium-scale towns of Belarus. In particular, the employment programme should contain the information about all companies and enterprises, which will be founded in the country in 2008, and the data about specialists, who will be placed in a job there (after graduating from an educational establishment or taking a retraining course).
The Prime Minister stressed the need to resolve the problem connected with the shortage of manpower, especially highly skilled workers, which happened due to the labour outflow. According to him, first of all companies should pay more to these specialists.
Belarus should enhance efficiency of the work on retraining personnel, Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Alexander Kosinets said. In particular, only establishments of higher education should offer retraining courses.
According to First Vice Premier Vladimir Semashko, it is necessary to restore the practice of training workers at the enterprises. “For example, today Minsk Plant of Wheeled Carriers can receive 30-40% more orders. But it needs 800 machine tool operators for this purpose. They can be trained following the pattern “a skilled workman to a pupil”. In this case the company will only have to raise wages of skilled workers,” Vladimir Semashko underlined.
The main goal of the employment programme for 2008 is to enhance efficiency of the use of human resources, Vladimir Potupchik, Minister of Labour and Social Security of Belarus, underlined. The document allows for stepping up measures to more actively address the employment problems, to set relevant tasks and to perform relevant actions. The programme will be financed from the Social Security Fund (Br117.6 billion). Bank loans may be raised as well. About 25% of the money of the Social Security Fund will be spent on stimulating employers to create new jobs.
Having monitored the problems of the regional labour force markets, the Government included 23 small towns in the programme for 2008. A set of concrete measures aimed at easing of tensions in every labour force market will be taken. Special emphasis will be placed on the employment of the disabled, young people and citizens, who were released from jail. Not less than 30% of the unemployed will take vocational training courses for the needs of concrete manufacturers in order to shift the disbalance of labour force demand and supply and to increase the quality of labour resources. Such approach, first of all, will be taken to the employers receiving budget subsidies for creating new jobs.
The Government will continue supporting the unemployed, who want to start their own businesses.
The Presidium of the Council of Ministers took a decision to finalise the draft programme till the end of January. The analogous documents for 2009 and 2010 should be drafted by June-July 2008.
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